The piercing of ear lobes to facilitate the attachment of ornamentation thereto is a social custom dating back at least to the pyramids of Egypt. Today the usual procedure for professionally piercing an ear lobe is to wash, rinse and cleanse the ear lobe and then to pierce the lobe with a metal, often gold or gold plated, pierce mounted on a syringe-like device. The syringe device is presumably disinfected between uses, but the patient has no assurance that such is the case nor does practical experience justify such a presumption. When the piercing is done on a nonprofessional basis invection is an ever present hazard.